19 died in accidents in May

DOHA: At least 19 people were killed in road mishaps in Qatar last month. The country witnessed a total of 28,152 road accidents during the month.

Of the total road mishaps in May, 57 were major accidents and 578 were ‘minor’. Madinat Khalifa area recorded the maximum number of accidents — 6,916.

The Airport area witnessed 5,192 road mishaps. The North and South traffic departments reported maximum number of major accidents — 13 each.

According to figures released by the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDP&S) for May 2014, speeding was the major type of traffic violation in the country.

Of the total 158,300 violations reported during the month, 87,123 violations were recorded for overspeed, against 76,884 similar cases reported during the previous month.

Jumping signals, ‘other traffic offences’ and violating traffic signs were other major violations reported during the month. 36,507 traffic offenses were reported in May, down from 39,585 offenses reported in April.

Traffic department registered a total of 2,196 cases for jumping red signals and 10,852 cases for not following traffic signs.

A spate 20,482 cases have been registered under “other violations” by the traffic authority.

May saw a huge jump in cases related to non-renewal of driver’s licences. The number of registered cases of non-renewal of licences has gone up to 572 from 351 in April.

However, in terms of total number of traffic violations there is a marginal decline.

The total number of traffic violations during May has come down to 158,300 from 160,955 reported in April.

A total of 8,144 fresh driving licences were issued in May. Of this, 96 percent were issued to non-Qataris.

Qatar’s various municipal authorities detected a total of 2,554 violations during the month. Maximum number of violations totalling 1,184 was reported from Al Rayyan municipal area.

Violations relating to hygiene and food safety account for the maximum number.

Doha Municipality reported the maximum number of building violations.

Qatar’s population grew by 0.9 percent to 2.174m in May. While male population increased by 0.9 percent, the female population grew by 0.7 percent.

Data on monthly household cash expenditure illustrated both Qataris and non-Qataris spent a maximum share of their household expenditure on food basket to foods consumed from restaurants.

While Qataris spent 23.93 percent of their total household expenditure on buying food from restaurants, non-Qataris spent a 31.43 percent in May.